When an individual passes away it is customary for the body of the individual to be viewed by family and friends at a funeral home. After the viewing, a memorial service or funeral is generally held at the funeral home or a church to commemorate the life of the deceased. Thereafter, a grave side service may be held with family and friends looking on. With the completion of the grave side service the casket is lowered into the grave where it will remain. A similar service may be held prior to or after the deceased is being cremated. Usually after cremation the cremated remains are collected and presented to the family in a cremation urn.
The casket in which the deceased is displayed and buried can be customized to fit the needs and preferences of the deceased and the family. For instance, a wide variety of materials, finishes, colors and decorative ornamentation can be chosen to meet these needs. The purchaser of a casket can also customize the casket using a variety of stylized trim or corner pieces. These stylized corner pieces usually have standardized decorative elements as chosen by the manufacture. In addition, these corner pieces typically are not personalized. Moreover, these stylized corner pieces are typically permanently mounted onto the casket and are left on the casket when the deceased is buried in the grave site. It is desirable however to more truly personalize the casket to more accurately memorialize the deceased individual.
In addition, once the casket is buried and the funeral services are completed, the families are left with few tangible reminders of the funeral and burial services. Most families receive flowers at the funeral home which pay respect to the deceased and his or her surviving family. These flowers, however, wilt and die after a short time, leaving the family with few remembrances of the funeral or burial services. It is desirable for the families to receive a more tangible and permanent reminder of the funeral or burial services.
A casket ornament attachment mechanism is disclosed in Acton et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,591,466, 5,928,706, and 7,340,810 titled Quick Change Casket Corner Attachment Mechanism, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. The Acton et al. patents disclose an ornamental corner piece assembly having a back plate that attaches to the corner of a casket. The back plate includes a clip member having at least one keyhole groove. A decorative corner insert includes at least one attachment member that slidingly engages the keyhole groove in the clip member such that the corner insert removably couples to the back plate. In this way, a funeral director may quickly and conveniently change out the decorative corner pieces to provide a wide variety of casket designs personalized to the deceased. Such a quick change casket corner ornament is commercially available from the assignee as its LIFESYMBOLS® line of corner ornaments.
One attempt at providing a means of memorializing a deceased individual may be seen with reference to the assignee's Groemminger et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,557,222, 6,883,212, and 7,210,204 titled Personalized Casket Ornament Display Plaque, hereby incorporated by reference herein. These patents disclose a casket ornament display plaque and associated methods for memorializing a deceased individual. The casket ornament display plaque comprises a decorative board, a casket ornament, for example a LIFESYMBOLS® corner ornament, attached to the board, and indicia attached to the board identifying a deceased to be memorialized. The casket ornament is one having been removed from a casket in which the deceased was displayed. The indicia may be a nameplate bearing the name of the deceased, a photograph of the deceased, or both.
Another attempt may be seen with reference to the assignee's Bell et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,385 titled Personalized Casket Corner Piece Display Pedestal, hereby incorporated by reference herein. This patent discloses a casket corner piece display pedestal and associated methods for memorializing a deceased individual. The casket corner piece display pedestal has a center piece having first and second ends with a casket corner piece receiving surface disposed therebetween. The center piece includes either a memorabilia receiving container, a cremation urn, or both disposed within the first end of the center piece. A base member is attached to the second end of the center piece for supporting the casket corner piece display pedestal. The base member includes an extended portion protruding transversely to the casket corner piece receiving surface on the center piece. A cover member is removably disposed on the first end of the center piece to cover the memorabilia receiving container and/or cremation urn. The cover member includes an extended portion protruding transversely to the casket corner piece receiving surface on the center piece such that the casket corner piece display pedestal has an approximate C-shaped profile. The casket corner piece receiving surface is adapted to receive and hold a casket corner piece, for example a LIFESYMBOLS® corner ornament, so that the casket corner piece can be displayed for viewing.
An even more recent innovation may be seen with reference to the assignee's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/467,046 titled Casket and Memorialization Accessory, hereby incorporated by reference herein. This application discloses a casket and memorialization accessory combination comprising a casket comprising a casket shell having a pair of side walls and a pair of end walls and a casket lid closable on the casket shell, a decorative ornament comprising a digital image display device, and a keepsake box adapted to receive keepsake items therein. The casket shell, ornament, and keepsake box are configured such that the ornament is removably attachable to the casket shell and attachable to the keepsake box. The ornament, for example a LIFESYMBOLS® corner ornament, can be removed from the casket in which a deceased was displayed for viewing and attached to the keepsake box so that the keepsake box and ornament can be presented to a loved one of the deceased as a memorial to the deceased.
Despite the advancements made in the area of memorialization as demonstrated above, there remains room for improvement.